Nova woke with full clarity before dawn.
He lay still for a moment, running his usual baseline check. Energy reserves restored from sleep cultivation. Chaotic Origin Flame steady and deep. The Stage 2 cellular structure settled and quiet, no residual tension from yesterday's fourteen-hour session.
He got up. He did not shower. There was nothing to wash off — any particle of dust or impurity that touched his skin got absorbed and converted before it could accumulate. He always looked clean, always looked neat, always looked like someone who had just finished getting ready rather than someone who had been sleeping. He had thought about this convenience approximately once and then stopped thinking about it because it was simply the reality now.
He sat cross-legged on his bed and pulled up the two techniques.
